| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Sandwich | [1395], [1402] |
Jurat, Sandwich Dec. 1385–6, 1398 – 99, 1401 – 02, 1403–10.1Kent AO, Sandwich deeds, Sa/TB1/14, 16, 19; St. John’s hosp. reg. ff. 6, 7; deeds Sa/QJt1/17, 18, 20, 21; W. Boys, Sandwich, i. 49.
Commr. to assemble ships to combat pirates, Sandwich May 1398.
In October 1383, as John atte Nessche ‘junior’, he went surety for William Brian of Kent, then imprisoned in the Fleet for plundering a Portuguese ship in defiance of the King’s safe conduct. Nothing is known of his mercantile interests, although in 1395 he was recorded buying ‘cordez’ (probably cables for ships) from Gilbert Mayfield, the London merchant, apparently on behalf of another Sandwich man.2CCR, 1381-5, p. 405; E101/519/19, f. 48.
Atte Nessche owned land in the east Kent hundreds of Ringslow, Wingham and Eastry, on which, as a Portsman, he claimed tax exemption. Some of his holdings he donated for pious uses: it was discovered in 1392 that he had recently added to the endowment of the hospital at Dover without procuring the necessary royal licence for a gift in mortmain; in the same year, as a feoffee for John Joyn of Sandwich, he granted the reversion of certain marshland to St. Bartholomew’s hospital, Sandwich; and in 1410 he took on the executorship of the will of Richard Benge who had wished to make a similar benefaction.3E179/225/4, 7, 11, 22, 27; CPR, 1391-6, p. 147; Boys, i. 41, 48-49, 51; E364/44 m. Ad. Atte Nessche probably died before February 1413, when his feoffees disposed of some of his land.4Boys, i. 51.